The instant invention relates to safety equipment and more particularly to a safety hook of the type which is operable for securing safety belts, safety harnesses and the like to safety lines.
The importance of utilizing safety lines for protecting workers who are working in elevated areas from serious accidental falls has long been recognized. Accordingly, workers in the construction industry and other industries normally wear safety lines whenever it becomes necessary for them to work in open or exposed areas at high elevations. In this regard, while it is understood that a safety line will not actually prevent a worker from falling, it will normally limit the extent of a fall to only a few feet so that the worker will normally suffer only minimal injuries.
In most cases, in order to effectively secure a worker to a safety line, the worker must either wear a safety harness or a safety belt which is detachably securable to a safety line with one or more safety hooks. However, it is apparent that in order for a safety hook to be effective, it must be rugged and durable, and it must not be prone to becomming inadvertently detached from a safety line. Further, a safety hook must be simple and easy to operate by a worker to assure that the worker does not neglect to attach himself or herself to a safety line for reasons of convenience.
While a wide variety of different types of safety-hook constructions have been heretofore available, they have not always been entirely effective. Specifically, many of the heretofore available safety-hook constructions have not been both easily operable for securing workers to safety lines and effectively adapted for preventing inadvertent disengagement from safety lines. In this regard, in order for a safety hook to be easily operable for securing a worker to a safety line, it should be capable of being easily manipulated with one hand so that the worker can easily attach it to or detach it from a safety line. On the other hand, in order for a safety hook to be adapted so that it is not inadvertently disengageable from a safety line, it must include a reliable locking mechanism which is operative for securing or locking the safety hook in a closed position wherein it cannot easily be inadvertently detached from a safety line.
The devices disclosed in the U.S. patents to FROM No. 1,194,005; LEMEX No. 1,669,418; BAKER No. 1,711,440; YINGLING No. 1,914,189; MANSON No. 2,514,656; CROCK, JR., ET AL No. 3,575,458; and the British patent to M.S. GIBB LTD. No. 1,527,238 represent the closest prior art to the instant invention of which the applicant is aware. However, since these references fail to teach the structural features of the safety hook of the instant invention, and since they also fail to teach a safety-hook construction which is operative with the same degree of effectiveness, simplicity and reliability as the safety hook of the instant invention, they are believed to be of only general interest.
The instant invention provides an effective safety hook which is generally similar in construction to the safety hook disclosed in the hereinabove cited British patent to M.S. Gibb Ltd. No. 1,527,238, although it represents a significant improvement thereover. Specifically, the safety hook of the instant invention comprises a hook-shaped body having spaced first and second legs which cooperate to define a mouth along one edge of the body, a closure member which is pivotally attached to the first leg so that it is movable between a closed position wherein the mouth is obstructed by the closure member and an inwardly pivoted open position wherein the mouth is at least partially unobstructed, and a locking member which is mounted on the closure member and operative for locking it in the closed position. The locking member is of elongated configuration, it is pivotally mounted at one end thereof on the closure member and it terminates in a free end. Further, the locking member is biased to an outwardly pivoted locked position wherein the free end thereof engages the inner edge of the first leg to prevent the closure member from being pivoted inwardly from the closed position thereof to the open position thereof. The locking member is, however, manually pivotable toward the closure member to move it to an unlocked position thereof wherein the closure member can be pivoted inwardly to the open position thereof. However, in contrast to the safety-hook construction disclosed in the British patent to M.S. Gibb Ltd., the safety-hook construction of the instant invention further comprises at least one thumb tab which is preferably integrally attached to the locking member so that it extends past the free end thereof and outwardly along one side of the first leg of the body portion when the locking member is in the lcoked position thereof. The thumb tab is depressible to pivot the locking member toward the unlocked position thereof, and the locking member and the closure member are preferably dimensioned and configured so that when the thumb tab is depressed to pivot the locking member toward the unlocked position thereof, the thumb tab travels along one side of the first leg, and the closure member simultaneously moves inwardly to the open position thereof. In the preferred embodiment, the safety hook of the instant invention comprises a pair of the thumb tabs which extend past the free end of the locking member and along opposite sides of the first leg when the locking member is in the locked position thereof. Accordingly, the thumb tabs cooperate to define a notch therebetween, and the first leg of the body is received in the notch so that the thumb tabs retain the free end of the locking member against lateral movement with respect to the first leg. Further, in the preferred embodiment, the closure member and the locking member are dimensioned and configured so that when the locking member is moved to the unlocked position thereof, the two thumb tabs travel along opposite sides of the first leg. Still further in the preferred embodiment, the first leg of the body is formed with recesses along the opposite sides thereof which are positioned so that the thumb tabs travel adjacent the recesses as the locking member is moved between the locked and unlocked positions thereof.
Accordingly, it is seen that the instant invention provides an effective safety hook which is both reliable and easy to operate and which represents a significant improvement over the heretofore known safety-hook constructions, including the one disclosed in the British patent to M.S. Gibb Ltd. The safety-hook construction of the instant invention is easily operable with one hand simply by grasping it in the hand and moving the thumb tabs downwardly along the first leg toward the palm of the hand. This causes the locking member to be pivoted on the closure member to an unlocked position, and it simultaneously causes the closure member to be pivoted inwardly on the body to an open position. This entire operation is made substantially easier by the thumb tabs, since they allow an operator to move the locking member to an unlocked position simply by drawing the thumb tabs downwardly along the sides of the first leg. Further, because of the simplicity with which the safety hook can be operated, it can easily be moved to an unlocked, open position with one hand without requiring an operator to insert a finger or thumb into the open interior portion of the safety hook to move the locking member. Still further, since the locking member is biased to a position wherein it is pivoted outwardly from the closure member, the locking member is automatically returned to the locked position and the closure member is automatically returned to the closed position as soon as the thumb tabs are released. In addition, since the thumb tabs extend along opposite sides of the first leg of the body, they prevent the locking member from being moved laterally with respect to the body so that they provide an extra margin of safety against inadvertent opening of the safety hook.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the instant invention to provide an improved safety-hook construction which is easily operable with one hand and which is not prone to inadvertent disengagement from a safety line or a safety belt.
Another object of the instant invention is to provide a safety-hook construction which includes a pair of thumb tabs which are movable along one leg of a body of the safety hook for moving the safety hook to an open position.
A still further object of the instant invention is to provide a safety-hook construction of the type which includes a locking member, wherein means is provided for preventing the locking member from being moved laterally.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.